East Tour: SDS Prominent as Tour Heads West

Fortunes have quickly turned this morning for the Indiana soybean crop as the Eastern Tour closes out it’s Indiana swing and moves into Illinois. What appeared to be a relatively healthy soybean crop in Ohio and western Indiana on Monday, is now showing more signs of sudden death syndrome (SDS).

Roger Bernard, East Tour director, who drove to Columbus from Cedar Falls prior to the tour, says the instances of the killer disease will become more common as the tour heads west into Illinois and Iowa.

Bernard’s group travelled just northwest of Indianapolis this morning and has encountered several instances of SDS, but not in every field. That’s not the case for East Tour agronomist Mark Bernard, who says his group has seen it nearly every field they’ve visited this morning. Mark’s route is about 90 miles north and west of Indianapolis.

"It’s not severe, but it’s certainly noticeable in every field we’ve been into," says East Tour agronomist Mark Benard. "Hopefully a lot of these fields are far enough advance that SDS won’t impact the final yields. Flat pods are a concern for me. Those may be the one’s that will take. A couple samples we pulled this morning are more on the flat side, because they were delayed in their planting."

Mark says that the general rule is earlier-planted soybeans are more susceptible to SDS, but that’s not always the case. It is a fusarium fungus that causes SDS and cooler, wetter conditions are needed to enable the fusarium to get a hold on the plant, Mark says.